Bad subtitles, bad audio quality, bad editing. There's a 2 minute introduction to using autocad in which the teacher instructs us to google for something rather than providing the direct link. It all feels very unprofessional but this is what I've come to expect from Sapienza.

Highly interesting! For me as a Latin teacher, this filled important gaps in my knowledge. I only don't give 5 stars, because I find the power point material not structured enough, I quickly loose orientation in it. Apart from that: excellent.

The poor nature of the presentation is demonstrated by the low average initial scores of several of the quizzes.

I would like to thank Prof. Paolo Carafa for giving me an insight in the archeology and history of the Palatine Hill in such great detail. I was always fascinated by ancient Rome and this course has inspired me to continue discovering Roman arts, architecture and culture. At the beginning of the course I had some difficulties with orientation and finding the locations of places on the Palatine. Also, the quiz questions sometimes were not covered in the lecture. Fortunately, I could use google search and the maps provided in the slides to further investigate. I really enjoyed this very interesting course and hope more courses like these one will follow.

Great course, learned a lot. The course would greatly benefit from a complete transcription, though. Had to use Google to help with some translations and a couple questions aren't even covered within the videos or the powerpoint presentations.

Though I have been to Palatine Hill twice, understand some basic Latin, have some knowledge of Roman history and interest in the subject I found this course pretty difficult and honestly in need of improvement for clarity. Some lectures have subtitles/transcript; some do not. The Professor is very knowledgeable of course and pleasant to listen to, but sometimes it is difficult to catch what he said due to accent or him speaking rather quietly in parts. The quiz questions sometimes were not covered in the lecture, he uses the English word in the lecture but Latin in the quiz, and most maddening the maps on the slides are not oriented the same way (i.e. North at the top), even within the same lecture. Many of the questions ask where something is on the hill (Northeast, South, etc.); and there is no way to remember what the cardinal directions were on the specific slide that shows it. Also the slides are extremely busy with loads of text and notes that you cannot read during the lecture. I would suggest opening the slide show in another tab or downloading it. At least you can complete the whole course free unlike many on Coursera. Good luck, I'm rather glad to be done with it to be honest.

Talk about a messed up course. Don't even know where to begin. Transcripts for only a few lectures: 6.1, 6.2, 8.1, 8.2. Be sure to download the image files; this helps some. But...

The graphic images jump around from Palatine to other locations with no reference titles or dates. Could definitely benefit from a logical presentation for each image noting

a. Time frame

b. Aerial view of actual location on the Palatine (why NOT Google Earth View?). And an occasional photo from a logical point of view (e.g. from Temple of Vestal Virgins, looking west) to help with orientation.

c. Map View of Palatine with the same N-S orientation or pop-up showing the location on a smaller "map"

d. Area within Palatine to be discussed.

e. Sections within that area, showing temples, houses, etc. clearly labelled, etc.

f. And a consistent geographic orientation to give students a real frame of reference.

Lesson 1 1° Tutorial 2° Tutorial - Auto Desk Auto Cad 3° Tutorial- How to Use Map Points to Draw an Archaelogical Map, and I thought, cool, we will always come back to the same line map of the Palatine, then show a new layer with this week's structures, since the landscape won't change much (esp. since we don't talk about Trajan digging up a hill). But no, Autocad is never mentioned again.

It would be nice if each image/slide had a label, a number, date or era, and a clear title, since sometimes we are looking at line drawing then a room that may or may not be from that same drawing.

How about a bibliography and a glossary?

Some words are only found on tests, and while I wasn't willing to watch one lecture a second time, I'm pretty sure that the answer to one quiz is not even mentioned until the lecture that comes after the quiz! Some of the quizzes use words that aren't in the lectures and not even Google can find. Is it English, Latin, Italian, or mispronounced?

And there are several other smaller quibbles (e.g. categorically wrong answers on quizzes) that really make this course a disappointment.

I really wanted to enjoy this work. If I knew the name of the primary source of the slides shown, I'd get that book, and learn a great deal more than I did from this course.

Very very interesting!

Having a document with names, terms, etc. would have been helpful, as well as clickable documents of the many maps and diagrams that were used. So many terms were found on them, and it made it difficult to keep track of everything. Very much enjoyed the course otherwise, thank you!

Complete, concise and precise. Very easy to understand and the professor is clear and suited for the position of teaching this course.

L

Maps are terrible. Close Captioning non existent at times. English pronounciation is bad. The subject is interesting though

very good

Lost interest, couldn't finish. Probably could have read a book on the subject and saved myself the time.

Un curso bastante interesante. Un nuevo punto de vista sobre el Palatino y su relación con la historia de Roma

Great course. Thanks

Very, very interesting. I wish to have more handouts

Excellent course material. Very Interesting and easy to follow. Why we have to download AutoCAD if it was not used?

The teacher is great! He shows us the actual ruins whenever possible, it is the next best thing to being there and seeing it ourselves.

Great Course to understand the founding and aspects of the roman empire. Pretty good.

Fanta

I appreciate the opportunity to learn the history of Rome and how it became the marvel city it is today . I will enjoy a lot more my next trip to Rome. Thank you .

Outstanding course. This course gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the evolution of the Roman Forum, centering around the Palatine Hill. The course has inspired me to continue my research into this phase of Roman culture.

Two areas of concern - The audio transcript is not present everywhere, and a lot of the building plans and maps are in Latin. Rest all good.

I’m now living in Siena so visiting Roma and it’s wonderful ancient architecture especially the Roman forum and the palatine hill has new excitement and knowledge for me.